Aurora plans new well at Nicolai Creek

Aurora Gas has applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to construct a gravel drilling pad on the western coast of Alaska’s Cook Inlet, three-and-a-half miles west of Granite Point, to drill the Nicolai Creek No. 11 well in the Nicolai Creek gas field. The drilling project is also undergoing a review for consistency with the Alaska Coastal Management Plan.

Although Aurora hopes to establish a gas storage facility in its Nicolai Creek field, the new well is a development well to enhance gas production from the field, and not part of a gas storage development, Scott Pfoff, president of Aurora Gas, told Petroleum News.

Aurora is currently in the process of drilling the Kaloa No. 3 well, near Granite Point, as part of a three-well 2009 in-field drilling program on the west side of Cook Inlet, using Aurora’s own drilling rig. Kaiser Francis Oil Co., Aurora Gas’ 90 percent owner, has sanctioned funding for the Kaloa and Nicolai Creek wells but has yet to sanction the third well of the program, the Moquawkie No. 5 well, Pfoff said June 4.

In 2008 Aurora restarted drilling in its Cook Inlet gas fields after a two-year, litigation-related hiatus. The company operates the Kaloa, Lone Creek, Moquawkie, Three Mile Creek and Nicolai Creek fields, all on the west side of the inlet.

—Alan Bailey